Eight years before Oregon became a state, the Legislature decided to create a college for residents of the vast, undeveloped territory.

Back in 1851, the Oregon Territory stretched from Canada to California, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains.

Bricks and other construction materials were slowly acquired for a building to be sited in Corvallis. But before the bricks could be slathered with mortar and stacked, the Legislature decided to move the institution to Jacksonville.

The city of Corvallis didnt give up on higher education, however. In the late 1850s, construction began on the privately owned Corvallis College.

But almost immediately after it was completed, financial difficulties forced the owners to sell the building and the land.

Rev. Orceneth Fisher, a Methodist Episcopal pastor, purchased the college for $4,500.

The four-year, liberal arts curriculum required three years of Greek, Latin and mathematics, followed by a senior year of ethics, morals and religious training.

In the 1860s, the Morrill Act offered every state in the country parcels of public land to help fund colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts.

So revenue from the sale of 90,000 acres in southeast Oregon was given to the college, although it was still owned and supported by the Methodist Episcopal church for several years.

For the next two decades, the institution was renamed every couple of years, becoming the Corvallis State Agricultural College, Corvallis Agricultural College and Oregon State Agricultural College, to name a few.

Plans to combine the college with the University of Oregon were defeated in 1913.

Oregon State College was finally dubbed Oregon State University in 1961.